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3D Rendering of Gaming Graphics

Posted by Zonk on from the i-want-a-tiny-dwarf-paladin-toy dept.

Raph Koster's ever-entertaining blog had a post yesterday about using OGLE to print 3D graphics, and other entertaining but questionable uses of technology. From the post: "OGLE: The OpenGLExtractor is a tool that lets you grab 3d data out of an OpenGL application and output it as models again. What does that mean? It means that someone with a 3d printer can get 3d statuettes of their Second Life character. They can send it off to be manufactured, if they like. It means that you can snag any 3d model you like out of someone else's game data, and insert it into your own 3d scene. So much for stealing textures... ;)"

13 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Welcome to the world of FOSS by caffeination · · Score: 4, Informative
    For those of you who aren't "into" FOSS culture and all that, all us Linux users already know ogle as The first opensource DVD player to support DVD menus!. Another example of a developer not thinking twice about the basic tenets of picking a name for your software, including:
    • Is it shit?
    • Is it already in use?
    • Is it also a word with negative connotations?
    • Will it get me shut down by the trademark police?
    There are many examples of FOSS software breaking these rule. I don't care enough about this incredibly niche piece of software to check if it's Free though (it's a fairly irrelevant detail anyway).
  2. Seems like a nice tool by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I did not know 3D printers were around yet on consumer level: I really like the idea of some MMORPG-er being able to print his/her favorite char.

    People will use this to learn from the models they output, but it also makes stealing/copying of objects/characters much easier.

    1. Re:Seems like a nice tool by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 3, Informative
      In reply to my own "I did not know 3D printers were around yet on consumer level" :

      Judging from this site, they apparently aren't yet... at $18.900 :)

    2. Re:Seems like a nice tool by Tyler+Eaves · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh, they're quite "consumer" level. It's just that the "consumer" are industrial designers. The price is quite reasonable for what they do.

      --
      TODO: Something witty here...
    3. Re:Seems like a nice tool by Tlosk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Depends I suppose on your precise defintion. Up until about 10 years ago or so would you consider photo development equipment to be consumer level? More expensive than most people would pay to buy one themselves, but almost everyone had no problem dropping their film off at a developers and paying a few bucks for the "use" of the equipment.

      Same here, lots of fabrication shops out there that you can send your data and they send you the object (most are not exclusive to this, just one of their many tools).

      And 10-15 years from now it wouldn't surprise me to be able to pick one of these up for a hundred bucks, just as you can now with digital photography and photo printers.

    4. Re:Seems like a nice tool by RealErmine · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How about Blizzard itself contracts a fabrication firm with 3D printer service and charges $20 (heck, $50-$75) to send you a stereolithograph of your personal character. You could paint it yourself or maybe have it hand painted for an extra charge. Of course, they already own the models, but I imagine it's easier to personalize them by simply grabbing the fully equipped character model straight out of the engine.

      Sounds like $$$ to me.

      --
      Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
  3. Be boon for first person shooter... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Funny

    After my opponent splatters my guts in a first person shooter, he can pull out my splattered remains to create a 3D trophy. Actually, that might be cool. I can now have a trophy of my boss after I killed him three consecutive times in Counter-Strike. That's better than a screenshot.

  4. So... by argStyopa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who's going to start doing this for money?

    Looking at the sample shots of the WoW character, it's apparent that some of the gear is not translated? I wonder why? Also, I wonder how well it would translate non smooth-skinned characters (=Taurens).

    --
    -Styopa
  5. when it works by grendel_x86 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ive been playing w/ OGLE for a few days now, and i stress playing because i have yet to get it to work in the apps mentioned on their page.

    *When* i get it up and running, it will be cool though, and i will use it for generally evil purposes.

    Now to find the $$ for one of those 3D printers...

    --
    Im glad /. isnt the real world, that would really suck..
  6. OGLE vs. Ogle by xitshsif · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OGLE: Acronym, all caps Ogle: Name, proper caps No ambiguity there. Definitely different pieces of software we're talking about.

  7. a directx version? by Uzik2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As I understand it this is catching calls to the GL renderer and saving
    the 3d data. I don't see any reason why you couldn't do it with directx
    as well. Any gotchas there? It might be a fun project.

    --
    -- Programming with boost is like building a house with lego. It's a cool but I wouldn't want to live in it
  8. $100 up for grabs by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2, Funny

    $100.00 to the first person who can produce a statue of my maximally-assied scrapper girl in bikini 2 briefs from City of Heroes! Ass width slider -> max, waist slider -> min, ahh, life is good.

    What? You prefer to run around for hours behind a male character so you won't seem "gay"? Interesting...veddy veddy interesting...

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    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  9. Recording games with this? by Max+Threshold · · Score: 3, Insightful
    How much does hooking these OpenGL calls cost in terms of game performance, and how big is the resulting data? If this could capture textures (which it currently can't), it seems like it would be a much better way to record video from games than the ubiquitous FRAPS, which eats up about 1GB per minute with its fast but inefficient codec.

    If you wanted to get really fancy, you could even run your capture through a raytracer or something that would render it in much greater detail than your machine is capable of in real time.